Hanza
The Commonwealth of the Stations of the Ring Line, '''or the '''Hanseatic League (more commonly known as 'Hansa, Hanza, '''or Hanse) '''is an area of the Metro controlled by the supreme power: the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth Loginov. Overview The Commonwealth of the Stations of the Ring Line emerged shortly after central control was disbanded. Crossing all other lines, these stations were vital points of trade routes. They quickly became the place for all traders, getting incredibly rich in a short while. Soon they understood that their riches would become the envy of others, and took the only possible decision. They formed the Commonwealth. It's official name is rarely used, though, because people were quick to title them "Hansa" - after the Hanseatic League (Hansa), an alliance of trading cities in the Middle Ages. At first, Hansa included only a part of the Ring Line stations, the unification was not momental. The so-called "Northern Arc" included at first stations from Kievskaya to Prospekt Mira, the other fraction consisted of Kurskaya, Taganskaya and Oktyabrskaya. Later Paveletskaya and Dobryninskaya joined the Hansa, and the "Southern Arc" emerged. But the key obstacle to joining this ring of power was in the Sokolnicheskaya Line (renamed Red Line). This led to one of the major conflicts in the Metro, the war between Hansa and the Red Line. After this war, with a mutually-beneficial agreement signed by Red Line and Hansa, the circle was complete. Hansa forgot it's old conflict, seeing a worthy trade partner in the Red Line. Today's Hansa is the extreme capitalism with worst means of exploitation of non-citizen workforce, and is currently suffering from overpopulation - wealth attracts thousands of legal and illegal emigrants; however, the "golden population" of the Hansa are very wealthy. The Commonwealth is one of the few places in the Metro where you can find complete electrification of the tunnels (the other one being the Red Line) and public transporation on motorized trolleys, rather than hand-powered railcars or bare feet. Sacred books of the Hansa include some famous economists' works (like Adam Smith), despite Hansa lacking any competition - it is basically a giant uber-powerful monopoly. The people of Hansa, especially those born after the War, are indocrinated heavily with career- and money- hunger values. Hansa is well-militarized to protect it's wealth, all it's stations are heavily guarded, it boasts motor transportation and flamethrowers. Stations on the radial "dead-ends" usually end up as Hansa's appendages, which have little power and their wealth depends sometimes entirely on Hansa. In the Metro Last Light E3 gameplay trailer you can notice that Hansa will appear twice; one part is when Artyom is preparing to shoot at them and the other part is where Artyom jumps on a railcar it says Hansa on it, this may hint that Last Light will expand more on the Hansa. In the Game You first encounter evidence of Hansa in the Bridge (Level) when an armoured railcar is in the other platform looking for bandits. Also in Market there is a Hansa frontier guard post behind the last area with shops the way to the station is blocked off however. Bourbon and other characters mention Hansa several times during the game. In Market three traders can be overheard saying that 'dope' has allegidly been banned in some Hansa stations and that traders caught with it can be exiled. Dope in the game seems to be a refrence to hookah pipes as the barman in Market states he has lots to try and a hookah pipe can be found next to him, smoking it will award the player positve moral points. Trivia *"Hansa" is a term that often refers to the Hanseatic League, which was an alliance of various North European trading cities and merchant guilds that lasted from the 13th to 17th centuries. Category:Metro Universe Category:Locations Category:Factions